Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan 
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.)

Mylar is a polyester film that is widely used in a variety of applications, but artists love it as a drawing or painting surface for its distinctive surface texture, archival attributes, and semi-transparent effects.  Suitable for a variety of dry drawing media, its malleable surface offers subtle texture to retain fluid lines and deep values for impactful drawings – all while offering supreme eraseablility for image manipulation and correction.  Its merits for wet media such as ink, water-media, or water manipulation of dry media -- not to mention oil painting – are just as appealing, with a slickness of surface that allows material to spread and move for a variety of opaque and transparent applications.  Its semi-transparency offers a wealth of options, both practical and aesthetic, for transferring or layering imagery or creating light-filled effects.  In this class, learn to experiment with the effects of mylar using dry media and ink in order to discover its potential for subtle, bold, or layered applications for your own art-making practice.  Students will work from a range of still life objects and nature forms but are welcome to bring photo material or work abstractly for day 2 of this class. 

Image: Michelle Oosterbaan.  

Register by: January 26
Materials List 
Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.  
Instructor: Linda Gist 
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.)

Embody the spirit of spring with fresh and immediate painting! Learn to capture the essence of a living, botanical subject quickly and spontaneously in pencil and watercolor. This alla prima method can be used for preparatory studies for sustained paintings, compiling a field sketchbook, or as an end in itself. All levels welcome. Tuition includes a $10 materials fee to cover floral subjects. 

Image: Linda Gist 

Register by: February 2 
Materials List  
Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.  
Instructor: Kate Samworth 
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.)

Repeated or geometric patterns of form can add intricate beauty, continuity, and visual interest to fine art, illustration, and a variety decorative applications. Explore the applications of geometry to drawing and design through fascinating examples from nature and the history of art and architecture. Working in your choice of colored pencil or water-media, engage in exercises to develop pattern forms and color experiments to determine the most effective color combinations for your finished designs.  Great for artists of all levels, illustrators and designers, or anyone with a love for exploring color and pattern. 

Image: Kate Samworth, Four Seasons Celestical Map, 16 x 20 in.

Register by: February 9

Materials List 

Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Thursdays, 6 - 9 p.m.
Instructor: Silas McDonough
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (see description) 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.) 

Wood is one of the most versatile and widely used materials for making three-dimensional forms, from art sculpture to boats to furniture.  It is a readily accessible, renewable, and beautiful material that can be used in a wide variety of applications. Learn introductory woodworking techniques such as processing, carving, joining, and bending, with an emphasis on their application in furniture as functional sculpture. Students will be encouraged to develop their own creative vision and will work with the instructor to create an achievable project for the scope of the class. Tuition includes a $50 lab/materials fee.

Course objectives: 

• Whether starting as a complete beginner or with some woodworking experience, this class will develop students’ facility with woodworking techniques and understanding of the medium.  
• Students will be introduced to possibilities and limitations of wood and how to best use this medium in their creative projects. 
• Students will gain an overview of woodworking techniques such as processing/milling, carving, joinery and bending.  
• Employ critical design and problem-solving to translate participants’ creative ideas into achievable projects.  
• Learn how to safely use all the major tools in the shop as well as expanded possibilities of basic tools. 

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $645 (including lab fee). Select credit option with price adjustment when registering. 

Image: Silas McDonough, Fallen Monuments 2.

Register by: February 16 
Materials List
Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan 
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.) 

This course is ideal for students who want to paint the figure but don't know how to get started. Begin by learning about proportions, anatomical landmarks, and figure structure as you execute charcoal drawings of plaster statuary casts in PAFA’s famous Cast Hall. As you build confidence and skill, instruction will then introduce you to the practice of working from the life model – first by drawing, and then with a limited palette of either oil or acrylic paints. Previous drawing experience strongly recommended. Tuition includes a $35 models fee.

Image: Leon Kelly, Henriette as My Model, 1929, Oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 36 1/16 in. Coutrey of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Gift of Bernard Davis. 1950.20.1

Register by: February 16

Materials List 

Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.  
Instructor: Michelle Oosterbaan 
Credit: Non-Credit or 1.0 Undergraduate Credit (see description) 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.)

Hone your drawing skills in a variety of media while appreciating the color and intricacy of natural forms!  Less a traditional botanical art class and more a drawing media and techniques course, this class promotes observational drawing, experimentation in a variety of materials and mark-making methods, and the freedom to use rich, colorful natural forms as a point of departure toward personal expression.  In the spirit of the Kunstkammer (from German: “cabinets of curiosities”), work from a lovingly curated collection of unusual plant specimens from Longwood Gardens along with your own gathered natural specimens such as leaves, flowering plants, shells, fruit, and vegetables in order to explore line, form, value, and texture, as well as color principles and layering/mixing techniques. Experience a range of materials such as traditional drawing tools, colored pencil, water-media, and even walnut ink to depict forms through contour, color, and tone.  This course is excellent for students with an interest in natural history illustration or a love of nature, as well as for anyone seeking a straight-forward drawing or color course from animated, lyrically composed still life subjects.    

Optional: This course is available for 1.0 undergraduate credit for $595.  Select credit option with price adjustment when registering. 

Image: Michelle Oosterbaan. 

Register by: February 16

Materials List 

Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Tuesdays, 6 - 9 p.m.  
Instructor: Keith Leitner 
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.) 

Explore both the versatility of watercolor and the exciting possibilities of color through still life painting. Learn to capture form with the freshness and fluidity of all prima techniques.  Promote color in your work through instruction on color properties, mixing, and basic theory, as well as how to use hues in combination to create impactful compositions.  Discussions and in-depth demonstrations will enforce all content so that students gain the facility and freedom to use color and painting techniques as means of personal expression. 

Image: Keith Leitner. 

Register by: March 1 
Materials List  
Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies 

Wednesdays, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. 
Instructor: Frederic Kaplan 
Credit: Non-Credit Only 

Register by December 18 for a 10% Early Bird Discount! Enter promo code EARLYBIRDSPRING2024 at checkout (and click “+” to add the discount). PAFA members at the Friend level and above receive an additional 10% off. (Discount applies to CE regular adult Winter/Spring classes and workshops only. Open Academy classes, studio rental, gift certificates, membership purchases, and lockers are ineligible.) 

For students with some experience and training with acrylic paints, this course will increase the fascination and challenge of the medium by guiding you into a wide range of techniques and materials that will advance your skill level. Explore transparent and semi-opaque layering more deeply while investigating masking and blending techniques. Content will include color theory and compositional structure, as well as the introduction of a broad selection of acrylic paint types and additives. Subject matter includes still life arrangements, the human figure, and the expansive views of the city from the upper floors of PAFA. Previous acrylic painting experience required.  Tuition includes a $35 models fee.

Image: Fred Kaplan, Godel Escher Bach at Relativistic Velocity, 2019 Acrylic, oil and ink on canvas, 32 x 72 in. 

Register by: February 26

Materials List 

Winter/Spring 2024 CE Policy Guide, including withdrawal/refund policies